Description
Fancy a game of scientific Bingo? Invite speakers and experts to an educational event where they can either share their stories, or talk about their research through the use of demonstrations, experiments, videos, and storytelling. The audience will listen and use what they have learnt to connect this content to the learning outcomes, and stamp out the appropriate symbols on their bingo card, get a full house, for a chance to win a prize!
Students will play with specially created bingo cards, where each symbol is connected to the learning objectives or to an aspect of the chosen topic.
Target Audience
- Children 7-12
- Teenagers
You can do it with all those groups, but we did it with professionals from different fields like public engagement or the cultural and creative sector.
Benefits
Benefits
This activity allows content to be presented in a different way each time and can add some variety to the event, it is never the same presentation twice. It can also be used to share a wide variety of different types of learning materials and can help accommodate students with different learning styles.
Adding an element of competition is also a great way to keep the audience engaged throughout the event.
These events can be designed around a multitude of topics, The creation of a lot of content, or at least sourcing from other places, as well as the creation of the randomiser and the bingo cards, might be very time-consuming. However, after their initial creation, these cards and the content can be used at future events (if cards are laminated or reprinted before the event).
Preparations
This activity can be set up as part of a lesson, or pre-arranged in advance for an event or workshop, and can be done as an online, in-person or hybrid event.
Online activity: Activity will be carried out online. Students will be able to connect from their houses or school. A link to connect to the zoom meeting (or similar) will be given to the students and teachers before the event.
In-person activity: The activity takes place inside a theatre or school hall using a projection screen, audio amplification, a table for the scientific explainer, and seats for students.
You will need to invite a speaker or a group of speakers to present at this event. These people should be experts in the topic that this event is focusing on. Before the event, these speakers will work with the event organisers to develop the content for the presentation. The order that the content is presented to the audience on the day is decided randomly, if possible with a bingo machine and bespoke bingo balls, otherwise, some other system can be devised.
The content being shared should correspond to the themes listed on a specially designed bingo card, with a unique symbol next to each topic. Each card will have a different selection of symbols, and the audience should mark off the symbol when that content is presented.
When an audience member has marked off all their symbols they can shout out, and receive a prize and a new bingo card. The game continues until the end of the allocated time.
Resources
This format was taken from PSIQUADRO and The Our Space Our Future project, which use this school-based activity to educate school pupils about emerging space technology, and some live demonstrations, well as give the students an opportunity to learn more about careers in the space sector. To find useful teaching notes and other resources on how to conduct this event, as described above, please click here.
